The Australian Associated Press' (AAP) first rebrand in 20 years, spearheaded by Melbourne brand house Charles Elena Design, will roll out next month.
The project, which begins on 6 June, is a complete overhaul of many of AAP's operations, including a new logo, corporate website and streamlined, consolidated business operations.
“We're repositioning the AAP brand,” AAP head of marketing Sarah Higgins told AdNews. “There's a lot behind the AAP brand and its 77-year history, but we've grown so much we wanted to streamline our operations to show where we want to grow and expand in the future.”
The AAP's existing business operations have been consolidated: editorial solutions, business solutions and publishing solutions. Several AAP brands will be phased out as part of this consolidation, including Newscentre, MediaPeople and AAPOne.
"Bringing together our editorial services under one brand, AAP Newswire; our business solutions under Medianet; and publishing under Pagemasters, just made sense,” said Higgins. “We will also retain The Media Research Group, our intelligence business and Megaform, our horse racing research service, as vital sub-brands.”
The rebranding project was developed by Charles Elena Design, with consultation from Melbourne-based consultancy firm Tempo Partners.
“Our customers know AAP as a reliable, trusted provider of news,” said AAP chief executive Bruce Davidson. “Our other enterprises have the same dedication to service as our journalism, so we believe a group-wide approach to our identity will reflect this.
“We wanted a new look that paid homage to our rich history. AAP's newswire has been part of Australia’s news and information for a very long time and we like to think that our new logo encapsulates that history, as well as depicting the dynamic sense of news and information in the digital age.”
The rebranding project is estimated to be complete within three months.
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